Case 3: The Delusional InformerEmotional Intelligence: Use of the Insanity Defense Part 3

Case 3: The Delusional Informer. Calvin Ellery was a paranoid schizophrenicwho experienced delusions and hallucinations, and who believed that the Masonswere plotting to take over the government. He believed, moreover, that theMasons had learned that he was aware of their intentions, and that because he wasa potential informer, the Masons had determined to do away with him.As a result of delusional misinterpretation of certain things he had heard on anews broadcast, Ellery believed that "today is the day for his execution." When asalesman with a Masonic button on his lapel came to the front door, he was surethat the salesman had been sent to kill him. When the salesman reached into hispocket for his business card, Ellery was convinced that he was reaching for a revolver,Ellery drew his own weapon and shot first in self-defense.

The trial was remarkable in that M'Naghten's defense counsel reliedheavily ori Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity (1838), a recently publishedt work by Dr. Isaac Ray. M'Naghten, the defense counsel argued, was clearlyderanged, in that he suffered delusions of persecution (and, in modernterms, command hallucinations). It was one of the first times that psychiatrictestimony had been permitted in a murder trial, and the judges were soimpressed that the Lord Chief Justice practically directed a verdict forM'Naghten. Subsequently, the judges enunciated the M'Naghten rule,which holds that:It must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the partyaccused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, asnot to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it,that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.The M'Naghten test is widely used in the United States. Nearly half of thestates use it alone as the yardstick for insanity, while other states use theM'Naghten rule in conjunction with other rules. It is a relatively narrowtest, which relies merely on what the accused knew and whether he knew itwas wrong.Under the M'Naghten rule, only Calvin Ellery, the delusional informer,would be acquitted, for only he clearly did not "know the nature and qualityof the act he was doing," believing that he was acting in justifiable self-defense.the axe-handle murderer's behavior was clearly bizarre, yet becausethere was no evidence that he failed to distinguish right from wrong, hecould not be acquitted according to the M'Naghten rule. Similarly, Weiner,the pigtail snipper, though clearly disturbed and seemingly caught up in animpulse that ultimately overcame his best efforts at suppression, could notbe acquitted under the M'Naghten rule. He, too, knew right from wrong.DURHAM: "THE PRODUCT OF MENTAL DISEASE." In Durham v. United States, * Judge David Bazelon broadened the insanity defense to state that"an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the productof mental disease or mental defect." Notice the difference between the Durham"mental disease" and the M'Naghten "right-wrong" test. In the Durhamtest, incapacitating conditions, such as the inability to tell right fromwrong are not specified. One goes directly from "mental disease" to the act(Brooks, 1974), leaving it to advanced knowledge in psychiatry and psychologyto determine whether the act was or was not a product of mental diseaseor mental defect. Under the Durham rule, the axe-handle murderer wouldprobably have been acquitted on the grounds that, absent his schizophrenicconditions, he would not have murdered his mother. Likewise, defining fetishismas a "mental disease," the pigtail snippet, too, would have been acquittedon the grounds that were he not a fetishist, he would not have hadsuch a prurient interest in little girls' pigtails. And of course, Calvin Ellery,the delusional informer, would also have been acquitted under the "mental Illness".

Durham v. United States, 214 F. 2d 862 (D. C. Cir. 1954).

* People v. Wolff, 61 Cal. 2d 795,800. Drummond, his secretary, rode in the vehiclethat normally would have been reserved for the Prime Minister, and was mistaken for him byM'Naghten.

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